Wouldn't RIM be doing itself a disservice by offering multiple phones of a similar nature on the same carrier because in essence isn't RIM trying to take on rival phones by offering multiple phones on various carriers for cheaper prices?

I wouldn't count on an 8900 popping up on AT&T until the Bold has enough time to work its magic...especially if from what I see here, it's a 2nd gen thing...give that another year or so because just adding 3G isn't a big enough improvement to release an entirely new generation of phones...

Yes, I agree on this but with the way the deployment went surrounding the 9000, it up for grabs now on what the stratagy is. Initially, I thought that the 8900 would be for the US Corp users who did not have enough budget to purchase the Bold and stay on GSM - and reserve the Bold for intl. travel users. In some respects, the 8900 is looking to be a serious contender esp. if it has 3g.

Will the 8900 work in Japan ?? - that may be the one item that will separate it from the Bold - it will not be the true "World Phone" ??